


Remember That Moment

by vacant houses (the_lost_robot)



Series: That Moment [1]
Category: Chronicles of Riddick Series, Pitch Black (2000), The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon Compliant, Gen, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-03
Updated: 2013-10-03
Packaged: 2017-12-28 07:45:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/989507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_lost_robot/pseuds/vacant%20houses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Johns has no control over the situation but he doesn't know it. Future's still in flux, still shattered. It doesn't start till Riddick makes it happen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Remember That Moment

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing here.

**Remember That Moment  
**

He is eight the first time it happens.

Juvie detention in some place no can be fucked remembering. He's already half-wild by then, trying his best to live his life on his own rules. He isn't the biggest kid there, not yet, but he knows this place like the back of his hand and most of the others know well enough to keep away.

And then there's Bulldog. Ugly piece of shit who's seven years older than him and likes to think he owns the place.

Pulls a knife on him one day and the glint in his eyes tell Riddick that he means it.

He's been in plenty of fights before but this is the first time its for his life. Adrenaline surges through his body and then…

Then time stops-

Fractures-

The world breaks-

It's the only way he can think to describe it.

There thousands of different ways this fight can go down and he sees them all. Watches himself fight Bulldog again and again, over and over. He sees all the ways the fight can go wrong, sees himself die in so many different combinations. Sometimes, he goes for the knife, sometimes he ignores it. And Bulldog puts it through his eye, through his chest, through his neck and blood spurts from his body, stealing his life away as it leaves.

Then there are the scenarios where he wins. Where he yanks the knife out of Bulldog's hands and put it through Bulldog's throat. Or manages to stick him with the blade somewhere less vital. Or he doesn't even fight at all but runs away instead…

It happens in an instant.

In a moment, it's all over and he needs to decide, fight or flight.

Two seconds ago, he would have run. Wouldn't have taken his chances. But after what he's seen...

He fights.

The beating he receives is brutal and almost kills him. Later on in the med center, he can only wonder at his own stupidity. Somewhere along the line, his vision had narrowed down, making him forget how much bigger Bulldog was or that he never acted on his own. That single moment had blinded him, made him cocky, feel infallible. He'd felt power then. Seeing all those ways it could have gone down, he'd thought there was no way he could lose.

Stupid.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

He swore then that he'd never do it again.

A promise that was a lot easier to make than to keep.

The freezes began to slip into his life after that, couldn't avoid them. He got into a lot more fights, watched the world break down on him. Learnt how to use it, how to plan a fight in that single beautiful moment of everything. But it didn't stop there, kept creeping more and more into his every waking breath.

He watched people, studied them. Could almost see their thoughts turning inside their brains. Could tell when a deal was going south long before the decision had even been made to double-cross him. Every second had a thousand possibilities and he watched and waited and sees them all.

It kept him alive, got him through situations he should have died a thousand times over. Amongst other things, strange voices inside his head, the eye-shine, mysterious blast of energy, escaping from Butcher Bay had just about ripped his head apart with all the freezes. There had been so many moments when all possibilities had been death and he'd somehow managed to find the one that got him through. He'd barely had any time to recover before he'd been plunged into that whole mess with the Dark Athena and the whole onslaught had began again.

And now...now he was here.

Here on this planet where danger lurked underneath his feet, death blew in on the wind and every second was another step closer to the end.

"I want you to remember this moment," Johns tells him, smug and confident. "The way it could have gone and didn't."

He almost laughs then. John has no control over the situation but he doesn't know it. Future's still in flux, still shattered. It doesn't start till Riddick makes it happen.

The bounty hunter moves in close and holds out Riddick's goggles. He reaches for them and-

Time stops-

-fractures-

-a new moment, full of its own potential-

-possibilities shifts-

-the world breaks-

He grabs Johns' gun and turns it on its owner in half a heart-beat.

-a new reality is born-

"I want you to remember this moment," he growls.

And he makes it happen.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Because I died a lot playing Escape from Butcher Bay and Dark Athena. Here I attempt to reconcile what that means for Riddick in the context of the rest of the series.


End file.
